Welcome. Around here we discuss books, history, current events, home life, and other things. Politely. (And mostly with good cheer.) The idea is to share information and ideas, and help each other out a bit when we can.

Thursday, October 13, 2005

Biblio.com (one of several sites where my husband and I sell used books) had a drive a while back to fund the building and stocking of a library in Bolivia. Now I know why:

Megan Sherar, the sister of Biblio.com's CEO, Brendan Sherar, boarded a plane bound for Peace Corps Service in rural Bolivia over two years ago. Biblio.com was in the midst of preparing to launch a then new site for used, rare, and out-of-print books.

Little did we realize that 18 months later, over a distance of 3000 miles, and 7000 feet in elevation, our divergent paths would rejoin.

In April of 2003, a group of citizens of the community of Morado K'asa in Bolivia approached Megan with the idea of constructing a library for their community of 200 plus families. This group was headed up by JUSIBA ("Joventud sin Barreras" - "Youth Without Barriers"), an active local youth organization, and was backed by the leaders of the community.

At the same time, back in the U.S., after a more than a year in business, Biblio had achieved solid financial stability. Keeping with our corporate goals and missions, we were in the process of choosing a set of charities and non-profits which we could benefit by leveraging our success as a company. (We choose these by a companywide process of nomination and voting).

It was at this fortuitous moment that Megan presented her idea to us, and asked if Biblio could help finance the construction of a library for her community...

Deciding to build on that success, Biblio.com has recently founded an independent, non-profit corporation called BiblioWorks Foundation to develop literacy and education programs to communities in need. Right now they are branching out in South America, but they are also working on projects in North Carolina, which is where the BiblioWorks folks call home. More.